Agripunk

The Valley That’s Fighting Back

WHO ARE WE?

Hidden away in the valley of the L’Isola ad Ambra, in the province of Arezzo in Tuscany, Italy,  is Agripunk, a non-profit social organisation that has led to the closure of an intensive turkey farm that used to send thirty thousand turkeys to slaughter every month. 

After the farm closed down we occupied the site, which has a number of houses, workshops, shared spaces, cabins and 27 hectares of land. We have created a refuge for animals formerly kept for profit, alongside which we run a series of artisan craft activities and social, cultural and educational activities. 

Since 2015 we have been a multi-species refuge and a social centre. We made a contract with the owner. After renting for six years we are now able to put in an offer to buy the property. If we are not able to buy then we will be evicted along with the many animals which are living there, as explained in this article: https://agripunkblog.blogspot.com/2021/05/comunicato-importante-ancora-chiamat.html

Because of this we are launching the campaign #agripunkbenecomune because Agripunk is everyone’s and it’s for everyone and it has to carry on!

In Valdambra we are organising ourselves to try and keep our way of life going and try and spread it throughout the country where there are many other farms which quite literally make their money on the backs of animals which are kept indoors, immobilized, chained up, exploited and killed just because they are a different species from us.

We already know that factory farming is destroying whole ecosystems and with them all the lifeforms on our planet. 

In addition to this: 

- It makes a major contribution to the release of climate-changing greenhouse gases such as ammonia, carbon dioxide and particulates;         

- It poisons river and forest ecosystems by discharging liquid sewage;         

- It disfigures the environment and the countryside with heavy vehicle traffic and the constant production of many kinds of refuse;         

- It encourages the spread of animal diseases which jump from one species (spillover) to another, leading to epidemics and pandemics which we then have to battle with on an ever-increasing scale;         

- It promotes a form of dicrimination and domination over other species which share the earth with us (speciesism);         

- It makes it impossible and unhealthy to carry out any kind of activity near these farms;         

- It produces harmful "foods" which make heavy use of drugs, antibiotics, anti-parasite treatments and feeds which have been medicated and genetically altred so as to allow the animals to be kept in overcrowded conditions incompatible with their right to freedom and     with the needs and natural characteristics of each species, including humans;                   

- It is incompatible with the development of a circular economy based on traditional farming practices, with high quality agricultural produce, with tourism and respect for nature, especially in the light of increasingly worrying global climate change and overheating and the resulting environmental disasters;         

As factory farming expands it discourages new people from moving into the countryside and starting new activities.

“We are all animals, each with our own nature and varieties” This diversity should not be used to decide who has the right to exist and who doesn’t – these differences should be the things that unite us and allow us to live together on this earth.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

Take part in the campaign, either individdually or with your collective, meeting, association or NGO, and join up before the 15 September. The address is agripunkbenecomune@riseup.net         

Take part in the mail bombing from the 17 September to the 17 October. Once you have joined we will send you the text to use and the addresses to write to on the 16 September.                   

You can also add the addresses of your local council (Comune in Italy), regional and provincial councils in order to ask for your area to be able to join the struggle against factory farming. In this way we reach out as far as possible and right down to the local level.                   

Spread the news of this campaign to as widely as you can in order to help as many people join up as possible.                   

Give generously to the crowdfunding (IT11P0501802800000012165098 bic / swift CCRTIT2T84A int. Agripunk onlus causal "Agripunk bene comune" or see www.agripunk.com for Paypal link) effort because AGRIPUNK is already OURS and it should continue to be OURS. AGRIPUNK is ready to resist any attempts to evict us.

They have to hear our message, loud and clear, which is that Agripunk is resisting, and we are not just happy to close down one farm because the only acceptable farm is one that has only free animals.

The survival of many species depends on our collective will to promote meaningful changes and put them into practice, but above all we know that there is not much time left to take action, so let’s do it now! It starts from here!